Malcolm Freberg
Malcolm Freberg is a contestant from SS1, SS2, and SS4. Malcolm is generally credited for being the greatest social player to play in SS, being universally liked by many of the competitors for his honesty, adversity, and overall toughness. Despite lacking physically, he makes up for it in his masterful strategy of laying low to dominate from the bottom up, leading him to stellar performances in seasons that may have led to his possible victories. His previous gameplay in a non-SS camp, BOTS, laid the foundation for how a social and strategic game should be played. Malcolm is also identified with being ALWAYS aligned with Russell Hantz, his partner in crime. Being one of the most powerful pairs in SS history, alongside Amanda/Lisa, Stephen/Ian, and Chelsea/Kim, they have carved out the seasons they have competed in, and completely destroyed the games of the more popular names in the game. SS1 Due to a series of unfortunate events, Malcolm was eliminated off his tribe as a result of a super majority that had formed to oppose him and Russell, leaving his principal ally alone to wade through the struggles of the competition. SS2 Malcolm was selected for Fans vs. Favorites as a redemption, seeing as the host had no other options to return. Malcolm quickly proved himself by helping his tribe, Gota, win their initial challenges. Shockingly, the tribe swap occurred, and Malcolm had the misfortune of being placed on Bikal. Working together again with Russell, they controlled the tribe, even striking up a fan alliance in Chelsea, Kim, and Sugar. Going into the merge, it became tribal wars, as Gota and Bikal fought in a duel of 5 vs 5. With the threat of an idol in the air, Malcolm and Russell led their alliance in splitting Kelly away from the Gota Alliance by voting out Andrea, while Angie was blindsided, preventing the use of an idol for one more tribal council. Brett, the leader of the Gota Alliance, continually won immunities as the Bikal Alliance "pagonged" his alliance. Unfortunately, Russell, with an idol in his pocket, was untimely blindsided by his own alliance, as a last resort attempt by Brett to control the game. Luckily, Malcolm managed to turn the tables, getting the unpopular Kelly voted out, and later, flipping his former alliance back in order to take down Brett the minute he didn't win an immunity. In the Final 4, Chelsea and Kim expected a 3-1 advantage over Malcolm. If he had won immunity, they'd vote Sugar out. If he didn't, he'd be done. Luckily for them, Chelsea clutched the final challenge, but Sugar was completely with Malcolm ever since the merge hit, and stuck with him in the vote. Preparing himself for a tiebreaker against Kim, both were shocked to learn that the host pulled out a "SURPRISE DOUBLE ELIMINATION," taking down the two possible winners. SS4 Malcolm was the second choice for SS4, behind Ian's declining to come back. Malcolm entered on the Hiki Tribe, and mistakenly attempted to form an alliance with James and Abi. He later found himself on the outs of a 3-1-1 majority, but Hiki did not lose a challenge prior to mutiny, and he was spared. Suddenly, a chance to mutiny occurred, and Malcolm quickly dipped out of Hiki to Puka, hoping to catch Lisa or Stephen. Unfortunately, this was not the case as he ended up on the smallest tribe, consisting with all females. Malcolm managed to begin gaining Abi's trust, and outlasted his two teammates Allie and Katie as they would join the super majority Raro alliance. The merge hit, and Malcolm's game took a hit as the Favorites turned against each other. Stephen and Kim gunned for each other, leaving Lisa and Malcolm to fend for themselves. Naturally, Lisa took the side of Kim as Stephen had gotten her eliminated in SS3, and Malcolm was, for the time being, more trusting of Stephen due to Kim taking out his ally Russell in SS2. After a series of lies, pies, and idols, Stephen's allies Reynold and Danielle were taken down by the Raro majority. Malcolm attempted to stop the Favorites war, stating that if they continued, the Fans would dominate and they would see an all-Fan Final 6. Unfortunately, his pleas fell on deaf ears as Stephen, Kim, and Lisa were eliminated back to back to back. All former allies were eliminated, and Malcolm was left with Abi Maria as his only lifeline. Hopeful to bounce back, Malcolm began planning to work with Corrine and Boston Rob, but a tragic event in his life left him to abandon competing for immunity and limit his time strategizing. Without being able to convey the message to the fellow competitors in time, Malcolm accepted his fate and was voted out 6-1 as the final veteran in the game. Trivia *Malcolm is the first, and so far, only SS castaway to compete for a total of 100 days in the game. **Coincedintally, he has never made the Final Tribal Council, and he was pre-merged in two of his seasons: (SS1 & SS6) *Malcolm is one of two competitors to compete in the most seasons and win the least amount of challenges. **The other competitor would be Stephen Fishbach. **Ironically, both went from a terrible placement to near the top in the following season. *Malcolm and Russell can arguably be considered the best pair in SS history. **They both merged at least once. **Combined, they have caused the eliminations of 12 players. **Both have been eliminated by completely different circumstances. Russell was blindsided with an idol in his pocket by Brett in SS1, and blindsided by his former Bikal Alliance in SS2. **Malcolm was blindsided by the most unsuccessful alliance in SS history in SS1, and then lost out on a possible tiebreaker victory in a twist Final 2 ending. *Malcolm can be argued as one of the weaker physical players in SS history. **His only challenge wins are in trivia, puzzles, minigames, and essays. **Most of these challenges are team challenges, so Malcolm rarely has the opportunity to win immunity. **Malcolm is often viewed as a challenge threat down the road when he usually cannot muster out more than one immunity win. **Malcolm is ABSOLUTE SHIT at the Rites of Passage. *On the other hand, Malcolm can be argued as one of the best social players in SS history. **Despite being blindsided in SS1, everyone with the exception of one player in that alliance have befriended Malcolm and voted him to win in another camp. **He was seen as the front runner for the FTC jury vote when Brett was eliminated. **Alongside Lisa, he was seen as the most popular contestant left in the game. **Bitterness is not a word in Malcolm's vocabulary. **Malcolm won Swimmer's Award in SS4 for recognizing the threat of the Veterans' War and its impact on the game. *Malcolm is the second highest ranking contestant to never win SS. **The highest being Russell Hantz. *Malcolm is one of two contestants to be eliminated by a twist directly. **The other being Kim. **Ironically, they both were eliminated at the same time, in the penultimate challenge of SS2. *In the cancelled SS4, Malcolm was eliminated first for costing his team his challenge in a copy-paste war with his Internet. *Despite Malcolm being one of the most well-liked competitors in SS history, he has repeatedly voted for allies under pressure from idols and split alliances. **The only two competitors Malcolm has allied with that he hasn't voted for are Abi-Maria Gomes and Russell Hantz. *Malcolm has been outlasted by more fans than any other contestant who competed more than once. *The host, Swimmer, has credited Malcolm with "revolutionizing" the entire social and strategic aspect of the SS series, being named in his Top 5 All-Time Players. *Malcolm is one of three SS competitors to win a former camp of the host prior to SS. **Malcolm won TD: BOTS, Russell won Survivor Tonga and SBB1, and Tom Westman previously won 4+ camps of the host. *Malcolm can be considered a complete contrast to Russell, being more passive, easy-going, and intelligent than his partner-in-crime.